L’ATLAS

Biography

The French artist, Jules Dedet Granel, aka L’Atlas, born in 1978, found in his research around writing the starting point for his work in the fine and pictorial arts.He studied calligraphy in different countries and cultures, in this way creating his own original fonts.He was particularly interested in the idea of creating a universal pictorial language, a balance between form and letter, between act and intent; a game with endless variations, drawing near and diverging from optical art and the abstract and geometric art movements.In the 90s, he took radical action in the public sphere, making a name for himself in the field of graffiti; as of 2000, he developed studio work and exhibited his works in contemporary urban art galleries.

A major figure and internationally renowned street artist, he is known for his painted facades and for his monumental performances carried out directly on the ground on historical sites in cities, like with the immense compass commissioned by the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris in 2008, or at the Place du Capitole in 2012, in partnership with the city of Toulouse.These performances are captured frame by frame by the artist in video recordings.

He has also collaborated with brands such as Perrier whose mythical bottles he adorned with “Poptic’art”, a movement mixing optical and pop art that he is considered to have coined; and Agnès b, adding his touch to the clothes of the designer, one of his most loyal collectors.

L’Atlas is unique in that he researches and systematically renews his approach and his expression of the letter and the line, of the codified rhythm of writing, searching for the limits of illegibility and methodically leading his work towards abstraction and minimalism; he considers all form as letter and all letter as form, which has recently led him to work with urban planners to give a third dimension to his art and reinvest the public space in another way, thus restoring meaning to the architectural dimension of his work.

Today he is an artist whose rigorous work justifies the success he has met with collectors, the public and institutions.